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villain

 - 6 dictionary results
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vil⋅lain

  [vil-uhn]
Use villain in a Sentence
–noun
1. a cruelly malicious person who is involved in or devoted to wickedness or crime; scoundrel.
2. a character in a play, novel, or the like, who constitutes an important evil agency in the plot.
3. villein.
Origin:
1275–1325; ME vilein, vilain < MF < LL villānus a farm servant. See villa, -an

Synonyms:
1. knave, rascal, rapscallion, rogue, scamp.
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vil⋅lein

  [vil-uhn, -eyn, vi-leyn]
–noun
a member of a class of partially free persons under the feudal system, who were serfs with respect to their lord but had the rights and privileges of freemen with respect to others.
Also, villain.

Origin:
1275–1325; ME; see villain
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
Cite This Source Link To villain
vil·lain   (vĭl'ən)   
n.  

  1. A wicked or evil person; a scoundrel.

  2. A dramatic or fictional character who is typically at odds with the hero.

  3. also (vĭl'ān', vĭ-lān') Variant of villein.

  4. Something said to be the cause of particular trouble or an evil: poverty, the villain in the increase of crime.

  5. Obsolete A peasant regarded as vile and brutish.


[Middle English vilein, feudal serf, person of coarse feelings, from Old French, from Vulgar Latin *vīllānus, feudal serf, from Latin vīlla, country house; see weik-1 in Indo-European roots.]
vil·lein also vil·lain   (vĭl'ən, -ān', vĭ-lān')   
n.  One of a class of feudal serfs who held the legal status of freemen in their dealings with all people except their lord.

[Middle English vilein; see villain.]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Word Origin & History

villain 
1303, "base or low-born rustic," from Anglo-Fr. and O.Fr. villain, from M.L. villanus "farmhand," from L. villa "country house" (see villa).
"The most important phases of the sense development of this word may be summed up as follows: 'inhabitant of a farm; peasant; churl, boor; clown; miser; knave, scoundrel.' Today both Fr. vilain and Eng. villain are used only in a pejorative sense." [Klein]
Meaning "character in a novel, play, etc. whose evil motives or actions help drive the plot" is from 1822. Villainous is recorded from c.1300, from O.Fr. vileneus; villainy (c.1225) is from O.Fr. vilanie.

villein 
c.1325, spelling variant of villain, refering to a feudal class of half-free peasants.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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